Hackers Hit Tesla Twitter Account, Website

Someone might want to change the password on Tesla’s Twitter account—or, at least, ensure that it’s a lot more complicated to guess (and likely tied to someone’s real-world credentials via two-factor authentication) in the future. SAN DIEGO, April 27 — Tesla Motors Inc.’s Twitter feed and its media-relations e-mail account were hacked Saturday, with the electric-car maker led by billionaire Elon Musk becoming the latest victim of online vandals. According to numerous reports yesterday, an unknown individual (or individuals) managed to get into the Tesla Twitter account, as well as the Twitter account belonging to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The hacker or hackers who compromised Tesla’s Twitter feed were able to post messages to the Palo Alto, California-based company’s more than 564,000 followers, and one of the attackers responded to an e-mail message to Tesla’s press contact, indicating that account was compromised, too. “It’s not been hacked sir,” the person wrote from a Gmail account, identifying him or herself as a “tesla press representative” using a name that’s been linked to earlier attacks on other companies.

According to a report by TechCrunch the fact that, “Both Tesla’s Twitter account and the website were hacked simultaneously points to an issue beyond a one-off Twitter security failing.” The report said it was not clear if the hack compromised the security of Tesla’s own servers, or if the site hijacking is a result of something like DNS/domain redirection. ~ The firsts signs of the hijacking popped up around 1:52 pm west coast time, when a tweet from the account declared that it was now under the control of its attackers, and the account’s name was changed from “Tesla Motors” to “#RIPPRGANG”. ~ A few minutes later, the account began “promising free Teslas to those who followed certain accounts or to those who called a certain phone number,” according to the report which added that a quick search suggested that the number belongs to a computer repair shop in Illinois, and was presumably tweeted out to flood the number’s owner with calls. ~ At about the same time Tesla’s website was edited to declare that it’d been hacked by the same attackers. The hijackers claiming responsibility indicated they were known as “ripprgang” and, yes, they even posted a link to their own Twitter account—which isn’t filled with anything interesting, unfortunately, seeing as it has already been suspended as of this article’s writing. In fact, Auto Guide reports that even after a pay raise for 2015, Musk’s salary is only just enough to keep up with California state minimum wage law, at $37,440. Business Insider has a pretty large list of screenshots that show some of what the account hijackers tweeted out once they had access to @teslamotors.

They often occur when people managing the account fail to turn on so-called two-factor authentication, which involves entering a code sent via text message to the owner’s phone, in addition to a password. If you don’t believe us, rest assured that this data is bona fide; it was obtained through the electric-carmaker’s annual proxy statement filing to the SEC. The @rootworx handle which had been mentioned in tweets by ‘Musk’ has distanced himself from the prank on Twitter, writing “Again, There is no free car, I did not hack Elon Musk or Tesla’s Twitter account. Disrupt Your Feed: For all the effort that goes into a major hack like this, the hackers couldn’t have at least posted something more amusing/interesting?

A Finnish child is having fun at your (and my) expense.” The attacks are the latest in a long list of social media hacks, which has claimed victims like Taylor Swift and even the US Central Command Twitter and YouTube accounts which were hacked by people claiming to be connected to the Islamic State. The website was taken down to rebuild the site back to what it was before the hackers claimed it using the title “Autismsquad” and replaced the site with a strange collage of photos, according to DCInno. Drop This Fact: This may not count as a hack because it was simply a mistake, but remember that time American Airlines’ Twitter account posted a graphic photo (NSFW)?

That’s obviously different than the group that attacked the company’s Twitter, but it’s highly likely the two are related, given how the attack probably went down. After the Twitter accounts were hacked, there were some tweets sent that contained colorful language, shoutout to other Twitter users, and offers of a free Tesla if people would follow the hackers accounts.

Regardless, one doesn’t necessarily expect the level of humility and grace required to refuse payment for one’s work from a prodigious, compulsive entrepreneur like Elon Musk. While Musk and Tesla had their Twitter accounts and website hacked, it does not appear too much damage was done, and anything changed was quickly restored to normal.